Day 586

Yeah, that’s right. I saw a problem (wet spot in the family room directly under the toilet) and took action right away. Imagine if this were Congress? The ceiling would have caved in before they did anything and even then they’d be blaming each other. Egads. Remember when we were a country that saw problems and tried to solve them? That was so long ago.

Did you see the president’s reaction to being asked about John McCain? Actually it was three times. Three different times yesterday he was asked about McCain. He sat there not saying a word with his arms wrapped around himself like a petulant child. He had the White House flagged raised in direct contradiction to standard protocol. Finally, he had it lowered and issued a statement after one of the veterans groups with two million members suggested he do so.

Rachel last night said that this was so simple. All he had to do was do something decent and not make it about himself. He couldn’t do it. Not on either count.

This got me to thinking, “Can anyone think of anything this man has ever done that was decent?”

Or “Was not about himself?”

In other news:

A court has ordered North Carolina to redraw its district lines before the 2018 election. It may go to the Supreme Court where it will no doubt deadlock 4-4, and be handed back to the lower court. North Carolina’s Republicans in power have been ordered twice before to redraw and they’ve screwed around.

The Republican efforts at gerrymandering continue, but maybe there’s a hope that at least in North Carolina district lines will be redrawn to actually represent the people of the state.

Republicans, not satisfied with their efforts at voter suppression have come up with a new tactic, the ADA!. Yup, they are using the American Disability Act to close voting places that don’t have wheel chair access, but they are only doing it in poor Democratic places.

Paul Manafort, it has been reported, may have been seeking a plea deal with the Mueller team. It may not be all that it seems. Apparently, the prosecutorial team and the defense team for Manafort’s next trial had a meeting with the judge in that case. The same judge that ordered Manafort to jail for witness tampering. This was reported as seeking a plea deal, but others have said no, it’s standard procedure before a trial to meet to discuss how to proceed. What makes this trial unusual is that it is happening at all. Instead of having one trial Manafort wanted two. This was considered so nutso by the judge that he had the defense team to the bench before they started the first trial to ask if that was the way Paul wanted to go. The defense assured him that was the case. Now, Paul Manafort goes to his second trial as a convicted felon. This says nothing about the other ten charges from the first trial that the jury 11-1 reached a “No Consensus” on.On those eight charges I am now hearing Paul Manafort could face eighty years in jail.

This next trial has a lot more evidence, including emails in Russian. (You want Russia? I’ll give ya Russia.)

So it may not be the case that Paul Manafort was doing a plea deal but rather that his lawyers were just meeting with the judge and prosecutors to see how to proceed.

Meanwhile the New York State case against The Trump Foundation continues.

Also, cute Ivanka has closed down her jewelry line, but her old partner has been accused of money laundering, extortion, and stiffing creditors. Not all these things were done with Ivanka’s jewelry business, but some were.

Okay, got that? Well, it turns out one old partner, the one mentioned above named Lax, Lax and Ivanka closed the business, called – get this – Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry.

Lax got a $1.5M loan from a guy named Rosenfeld in the name of Ivanka’s Fine Jewelry. Actually, from his family’s non-profit, which it isn’t clear what that non-profit does. Nor is it clear why Ivanka’s Fine Jewelry needed the money. In 2012 the charity sued to get their money back.

Rosenfeld owned a home on Carlton Road in Monsey, New York, a suburb of NYC. That house burned down on December 31, 2017.

In 2014, the ownership of the house transferred from Rosenfeld to a “entity associated with Rosenfeld’s family” whatever that means.

In 2015, Rosenfeld and Lax’s wife signed a note for $1M from a guy named Goldenberg and Goldenberg’s wife. Then the Goldenbergs loaned $600K more to Lax. All this supposedly to help Lax set up a new company after Ivanka’s company had closed.

The Laxs didn’t make their loan payments to the Goldenbergs and they sued to get their money. Suddenly Rosenfeld said he was still owed his $1.5M and needed to be paid back first, thus blocking the Goldenbergs from getting their money. Remember Rosenberg is in on the new loans. This looked fishy to the Goldenburgs and they not only cried foul but fraud.

A judge ordered half of Lax’s current jewelry business, the one he had before Ivanka, and the one he merely renamed when Ivanka came on the scene, be auctioned off. It’s the half Lax’s wife owns.

Then this past December the house burned down and the authorities suspect arson.

So at best it’s Whitewater. At worst cute little Ivanka is involved with seedy type characters and she could be criminally liable. Oh no, say it isn’t true! I keep hoping she can revive her fine jewelry line long enough to make some really nice wrist restraints. There’s a name for that! Think. Oh yeah, handcuffs.